Sigismund of Luxemburg and the Imperial Response to the Ottoman Turkish Threat, C
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Sigismund of Luxemburg and the Imperial Response to the Ottoman Turkish Threat, c. 1410-1437 Mark Whelan Royal Holloway, University of London Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Supervised by: Professor Jonathan Harris 2014 1 Declaration of Authorship I, Mark Whelan, hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: Date: 2 Abstract While much has been written on Sigismund of Luxemburg’s response to the Ottoman threat, one aspect has almost been entirely overlooked; his use of the Reich to counter the Turkish danger after his election as King of the Romans in 1410. The central point of this thesis is to consider how Sigismund drew upon and used the newfound status and resources that came with holding the Imperial office in order to support his struggle against the Ottomans. With the exception of the first chapter, this thesis is structured on a thematic basis. Chapter 1 provides the historical background required in order to contextualise Sigismund’s response to the Ottoman Turkish threat. By drawing upon a range of unpublished archival material, it also seeks to bring new perspectives to the nature of the Turkish threat which he faced and how he conceived of his struggle against the Ottomans. Chapter 2 highlights Sigismund’s use of the ‘status’ that came with Roman King in order to heighten awareness of the Turkish threat throughout Christendom. It does so through examining his letter writing, courtly ceremony and orations. Whereas chapter 2 underlines the more abstract ideological and cultural resources which Sigismund could draw upon as Roman King, the next three chapters explore how he attempted to draw upon concrete military resources. Chapter 3 explores how Sigismund drew upon naval and riverine expertise from his subjects as Roman King in order to support his warfare against the Ottoman Turks on the waters of the Danube. Chapter 4 focuses on the fortification of Sigismund’s frontier with the Turks, and the manners in which he sourced expertise and resources from his subjects in the Reich in support of this. Lastly, chapter 5 underlines how Sigismund drew upon the logistical and fiscal knowledge present in the Reich in order to support his campaigns and diplomatic manoeuvres against the Ottomans. In contrast to current arguments, this thesis argues throughout that Sigismund’s Roman Kingship enhanced his ability to resist the Ottomans rather than hinder it, and enabled him to draw upon concrete military, political and economic in support of his struggle. 3 Table of Contents Acknowledgements 6 List of Abbreviations 8 Introduction 10 Chapter 1. Sigismund von Luxemburg and the Ottoman Turkish Threat 23 1.1 Sigismund and the Ottomans, 1387-1410 23 1.2 Election as Roman King and the Council of Constance, 1410-1419 28 1.3 Sigismund’s response to the Ottomans, 1419- c.1426 31 1.4 Between Turks and Hussites: Sigismund’s broader conception of the Ottoman threat 41 1.5 Campaigns, coronations and further warfare, c. 1426-1432 45 1.6 Rome, Basle and continued fighting with the Ottoman Turks, 1432-1437 55 Chapter 2. Courtly Ceremony, Councils and Chivalric Orders: Sigismund and the Publicising of the Turkish Threat 64 2.1 Sigismund, the Roman Kingship, and the fight against the Turks 66 2.2 Diplomatic events, crusading and marriages 68 2.3 Paris, Rome, Perpignan and Nuremberg: Raising awareness of the Turkish threat throughout Christendom 73 2.4 The Order of the Dragon, its crusading indulgence and foreign membership 82 2.5 Mossen Borra at Sigismund’s court 94 2.6 The Council of Basle and the spectre of the Ottoman threat 96 Chapter 3. Sigismund and the Danube: Naval and Riverine Warfare on the Frontier 100 3.1 Sigismund and the importance of the Danube 101 3.2 Sigismund, Venice, and the waging of naval warfare against the Ottoman Turks 103 3.3 Sigismund and his appeal to the Teutonic Knights to defend the Danube frontier 105 3.4 Hansen von Ratibor, the Grandmaster’s Bleidenmeister 112 3.5 Hansen von Ratibor, Golubac, and the military challenges of the later 1420s 115 3.6 Hansen von Ratibor and his spell at Sigismund’s court 120 3.7 Sigismund’s broader efforts to source naval resources from the Reich 123 3.8 Sigismund and his recruitment of Flemish shipbuilders while at Constance 127 3.9 The naval expedition of 1437 129 Chapter 4. Defending the Frontier: Stonemasons, Cannon Masters and Workmen 134 4.1 Sigismund’s recruitment in France and Germany during the 1410s 136 4.2 Sigismund and his recruitment of building specialists at Augsburg in October 1418 140 4 4.3 Sigismund’s use of expertise sourced from his lands in the Reich in context 144 4.4 Sigismund and the use of the Teutonic Order’s construction expertise 150 4.5 Barbara and the use of her influence as Queen of the Romans 157 4.6 The Teutonic Knights and the fortresses on the Danube frontier 159 Chapter 5. Mines, Merchants and Dogs: Military Organisation, Economics and Diplomacy 164 5.1 Filippo Scolari and the defence against the Turks, c. 1400-1426 166 5.2 Sigismund, his need for administrative and fiscal expertise, and the Teutonic Knights 173 5.3 The failure of Sigismund’s experiment with the Teutonic Order 178 5.4 John Hunyadi and his military skills 184 Conclusion 186 Bibliography 188 5 Acknowledgements I owe an enormous debt of thanks to all of the people who have helped me in the past few years, academically, financially and personally. First and foremost, my deepest thanks go to my supervisor, Professor Jonathan Harris, whose expert advice, patience and friendship were ever present, from the beginning until the end, and who was a constant source of support throughout my PhD. His great knack in our meetings of being able to bring clarity to my own muddled arguments, chapters and thoughts, never ceased to amaze me, and I always looked forward to entering his office as I knew that upon leaving it I would be of clear mind and purpose and eager to get back to my research once again. Many other academics, based at Royal Holloway and elsewhere, gave me invaluable help and advice throughout the course of my PhD. Dr David Gwynn was not only a constant source of advice and support, but also acted as my mentor when I first started teaching. I thus had the benefit of learning firsthand from a natural teacher and lecturer who was immensely generous with his time, and for that I will be forever grateful. I would also like to thank other members of the department, notably Dr Clive Burgess, Professor Caroline Barron, Professor Nigel Saul, Dr Evrim Binbas, Dr Florian Schui and Rudolf Muhs, who were always willing to and lend me assistance and answer my questions, whether they revolved around Ottoman chronicles, fifteenth century English exiles, or even, in the case of the latter two, about the German academic world. Dr Hannes Kleineke merits a special thank you for his paleographic and linguistic help, and for his willingness to explain upon request the etymology of obscure German words which popped up in my source material for my benefit and understanding. I owe Michaela Bodnárová thanks for her help with literature in Czech (and for letting me stay at her lovely flat in Wiesbaden), Brian McLaughlin and Chris Hobbs for help with Greek, Martin Fotta for his help with Slovak, and Dr Chris Nicholson for his help with several languages, bibliographic references and for kindly reading through and commenting upon much of my written work in draft form. I would also like to thank Dr Julia Burkhardt, Dr Benjamin Müsegades, and Alexandra Kaar for the helpful discussions which I enjoyed with them about later medieval German history. Thanks are also due to Dr Pavel Soukup, Dr Alexandru Simon, Dr Iulian Mihai Damian and Dr Zsolt Hunyadi. I am grateful to Professor Herwig Weigl for his thorough comments and close attention to detail when reviewing an article of mine for publication, as his feedback was incredibly helpful and saved me from making 6 several mistakes when it came to finalising my thesis. In hindsight, meeting Dr Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, Dr Ekaterini Mitsiou and Dr Mihailo St. Popović so early in the course of my PhD proved a great blessing, and I am grateful for their invaluable help, support and friendship over the past few years. Special thanks go also to Professor Matthias Thumser, who showed me great kindess while I studied in Berlin and gave me the opportunity to give my first paper in German at his seminar at the Freie Universität. My viva was a highly beneficial experience and I thank the examiners, Professor Martyn Rady and Professor Norman Housley, for their supportive comments and constructive feedback. This thesis would not have been possible without the financial support of numerous institutions and charities in the UK and abroad. My thanks to Royal Holloway for the Helen Cam Award and other sums of money, which allowed me to undertake spells of archival research in Vienna and Rome, and to the Deutscher akademischer Austausch Dienst and the Preußischer Kulturbesitz for scholarships to visit archives in Frankfurt am Main and Berlin. Thanks are also due to the German History Society for their awarding of their Postgraduate Bursary. I had the benefit of giving invited talks on aspects of my doctoral research in Berlin, Heidelberg, Vienna and Prague, and I am grateful to the various institutions there for their financial support and to the audiences for their helpful questions and feedback.